


On a Path to Coolness (And the Souls That Get Us There)

by escalove (starryeyedsea)



Category: Soul Eater
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-20
Updated: 2009-12-20
Packaged: 2017-10-04 19:10:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/33169
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starryeyedsea/pseuds/escalove
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Soul goes through what it means to become a Death Scythe</p>
            </blockquote>





	On a Path to Coolness (And the Souls That Get Us There)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Nekopyo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nekopyo/gifts).



> Might be slight implications of Soul/Maka but that really isn't the focus. Also this story is more manga based then anime based, and as I haven't seen and don't have reliable access to the anime, I went to the manga so it may contain events that happen further along in the manga and didn't happen at all in the anime, so you have been forewarned.

99 human souls and one witches soul are needed to become a Death Scythe. That was how Shinigami had laid it out and that was how it would be.

Soul Evans, upon learning he was a weapon looked forward to the prospect of being a Death Scythe with a steady feeling of excitement mixed with doubt. It was the one way he could surpass or be on the same level as his older brother. The problem was that he didn't really know what being a Death Scythe actually entailed. Shibusen, while a school of learning, was not the biggest in terms of disclosing to its students why it was doing what it was doing.

All he knew was that it was the pinnacle of achievement and pretty much the biggest statement of coolness and well Soul Evans knew that he wanted to be cool and be seen as cool.

And he had thought it would be a piece of cake with a meister with the pedigree of Maka Albarn, daughter of a first class meister and current reigning Death Scythe.

And it started out that way. Collecting human souls was easy, and he quickly got over the somewhat squeamishness of eating souls, and even began to enjoy it, though if you were to goad him, he would still prefer real food to a soul any day.

It was easy, until through a huge mistake on both his and Maka's part when instead of eating the prized soul of a witch, he had eaten the soul of a cat. The soul of one very annoying and nosebleed inducing cat.

And suddenly the prospect of becoming a Death Scythe was indeed very far away.

And Soul was beginning to doubt very much whether the whole thing was worth it.

"Of course it is worth it" Maka told him as she watched him make dinner (Blair, their housecat was not around at all), "I mean you become all powerful, and why else would you be at Shibusen?"

Soul didn't know how to answer that, but then remembered that Maka probably wasn't the person to ask. She was an overachiever and had more personal reasons then him for wanting to succeed in crafting a Death Scythe.

"Why do you ask?"

Soul looked up at her.

"Just wondering."

Maka smiled.

"I think that you will be the coolest once you are a Death Scythe," she said, "isn't that worth it enough?"

_Damn Maka_, he thought, _she knows exactly where to hit._

"If you want to know what it means to be a Death Scythe, why don't you ask around? I am sure a ton of our teachers would be better at answering your question"

_Leave it to Maka to come up with a plan_, Soul thought.

  
One of the first questions ever really asked at Shibusen was this:

_Why do you have to eat 99 human souls before you can eat a witch's soul?_

"I heard that if you eat a witch's soul too soon, you will die," said Harvar to Soul as they stood by the board looking at possible assignments.

"That sounds stupid," Soul said.

"Hey I am just telling you what I heard."

"I think the human souls are good practice, defeating a witch is really hard you know," Jackie said to him, and she looked at Kim and nodded, "a beginner can't possibly defeat a witch."

"That may be true for weaklings like you and Harvar," Black Star butted in, "but I the almighty Black Sat can defeat a witch first."

"Yeah but do you really want Tsubaki to explode?" Harvar said, and crossed his arms and glared at Black Star

"Black Star…" Tsubaki said.

"Whatever," Black Star replied, "Tsubaki wouldn't explode. I bet you she wouldn't?"

No one took him up on it though. They didn't know if it was true after all and everybody really liked Tsubaki.

Soul asked Maka what she thought later.

"I think," Maka said, "That you need the human souls to prepare you for the witch's soul. After all their soul is full of insanity, and if you eat a witch's soul to soon that you will lose yourself to it."

Soul nodded, and his mind turned to that dark room and the little red demon who he met in his dreams and the demonic melody that came from that grand piano. Yes, Soul knew what the bits of insanity were like, and it was all ready too much to handle.

And then he looked at Maka and she smiled at him.

_I don't have to worry about it with you_, he thought.

  
_How is the power different between a weapon and a Death Scythe?_

Soul thought that as he stared at the floating soul of Arachne. They had done that. With the help of Little Ogre, they had defeated a witch.

Of course they hadn't yet retrieved the 99 human souls, but for one moment, and with the voice of Little Ogre in the back of his mind, he wondered if maybe it didn't matter. Arachne had been a powerful witch after all. If he ate that, would he become a Death Scythe?

"We should bring it to Shinigami," Maka said.

Soul looked at her.

"We shouldn't…" he said.

Maka shook her head, she was no longer cloaked in the dress that she had worn for the battle and Soul had transformed back into his human form.

"No," she said, "it wouldn't be right."

And for the first time, Soul almost felt like he wanted to go against it. That taste of power, but he held back. They were halfway through soul collecting so it wasn't as if it would be long, although Soul worried. What would happen to this soul?

Maka must have been wondering about that too, because soon as they met with Shinigami, she asked them about it.

"We will save it," Spirit said, "it is your soul after all."

And it was as if the knowledge that Arachne's soul was his began to delight him so many ways. He wondered how it would feel, what would it taste like, and what would the power that came with it be like.

"I have to imagine resonating with souls would be easier," Maka said as they left, "I mean Death Scythe's can be handled by people other than their meister and not have problems."

Soul nodded.

"But we will know soon enough," she said. And he smiled at her.

  
_How does a witch's soul affect a weapon?_

The presence of Arachne's soul at Shibusen was a bit of a distraction for Soul. He thought of how most human souls tasted a bit like what the human's were into, and Blair's soul had tasted of mint and fish. Arachne had been connected with spiders. That idea made Soul wonder what her soul would taste like. And would he feel her insanity? After all, insanity was connected to a soul and didn't that typify a witch? Their magic was rooted in chaos.

It was this question that Soul thought of when he and Maka were checking in with Shinigami after a recent assignment. After getting their commendation, Soul and Maka were heading out, and Maka was in a poor mood because her father was obviously lurking somewhere behind them in that annoying manner of his.

When they got back to the regular halls, Soul told Maka to go forward. She looked at him strangely.

"Are you sure, I am sure Black Star and everyone is waiting for us, we have another lesson after all, and Kid and I were talking about getting even better at resonating between all of us," Maka said.

"Sure, it will be just a moment," Soul said, "I have to take care of something."

She nodded and then scowled at her father who was lurking behind one of the columns of Shibusen, who shriveled back. Soul almost felt bad for the guy, even though really, he brought it on himself.

When Maka was well out of sight, Soul turned to the crying man and walked over to him.

"Man you are not the coolest," he said, just under his breath so that passer-bys would not hear, but loud enough that Spirit could.

He noticed Spirit's body become slightly still at his word, and the man looked up, and for the moment Soul wondered how a grown man, not to mention a Death Scythe, could look as pathetic as Spirit did at that moment.

"You're pathetic," Soul said and he had to inch a bit on his contempt. He was spending way too much time with Maka; he had no real personal reason to really hate Spirit.

Spirit said nothing, but instantly recuperated.

"I am just filled with love for my dear daughter," Spirit said.

"Well, maybe you need to back off a bit," Soul said, "your behavior really doesn't help at all."

"Will that really get me in good with Maka?" Spirit said (and Soul was at least happy that Spirit was not pathetic enough to not realize he was not on Maka's good side).

"Maybe, look that whole thing is between you and Maka," Soul said, "but I don't want to talk to you about that."

"You wanted to talk?" Spirit asked, and looked at him thoughtfully.

_You know it is times like these that I wish Stein and Marie were here, Soul thought, I would much rather talk to them then this guy._

"Yeah, you know, as a teacher and a student kind of thing," Soul said, even though he was trying to remember the last time Spirit taught him anything other then not to get Maka supremely angry at him.

Spirit immediately got this serious look on his face, that Soul knew he only seemed to get when situations which were very serious. This annoyed him, because while he wanted his questions to be taken seriously, but not _that_ seriously.

"What do you want to know?" Spirit asked.

Soul was quiet.

"What kind of witch did you defeat in order to become a Death Scythe?" Soul asked.

"Hmmmm," Spirit murmured, and he rubbed his chin with his forefinger, "it's been so long, she was extremely heavenly though with curves like…"

"More like in regards to her powers," Soul interrupted in, not wanting to lose Spirit to his stupid womanizing fantasies.

"Ahhhh, well she was associated with crows," Spirit said, "a very powerful witch, but of course Maka's mother wanted to defeat a witch of that caliber, and I had to go along. She could fly, and her magic was in her quickness, it was almost like she was teleporting a lot of the time, and she made weird sounds, like a bird, and when we fought, she was quick that I felt pecking at my skin. It was horrible."

"Did you get any of that power?" Soul asked.

"What?"

"When you ate her soul, did you inherit any of her powers?" Soul asked.

"Well no," Spirit said, "at the beginning I heard her voice through my head, but I was not that witch."

"Oh," Soul said, and looked down, "so you just gain more power."

"It isn't just power," Spirit said, "it is understanding and strength. The witch and all the souls you have eaten, they will be with you forever. They were lives after all, even if they were evil lives. To become a Death Scythe, means that you have conquered the insanity inside yourself, and the witch's soul is what makes sure that you have."

Soul nodded, and pondered this. Through all the fights, and the friends that they had lost, he had somewhat lost sight of what he had been seeking, and why he had to come to Shibusen in the first place.

He thank Spirit and walked away, while Spirit quickly reverted to his immature form of yelling after Soul to take care of Maka and how he dare not lay a hand on her, Soul thought about what Spirit had told him.

_I came to Shibusen to try and equal my brother,_ Soul thought, _but is that really reason enough._

He thought of Chrona, and Kim, and Marie, and Stein, and Sid, and everyone else. He thought of Maka, who in her hard work was trying to surpass her own mother and overcome the failures of her father, that he now realized that it wasn't just about being cool.

He thought of Eibon and Medusa and Asura and he now realized that there was a more practical reason to become a Death Scythe.

_Things are going to get worse,_ he thought, _I have to be ready._

And he wasn't going to let concerns about Arachne's soul and how it would affect him. He was already dealing with Little Ogre and his demonic pressure that Soul knew he could only get stronger.

He would not lose, there was so much that he needed to fight for.

  
_Will I be a different person once I am a Death Scythe?_

He stared at the soul in front of him, handed to him by Maka's father. Arachne's soul. This was it. 198 human souls and one soul of a cat later, he was finally ready. He looked at Maka.

He would be a Death Scythe. He would be cool. He would be able to help his friends. But most of all, he felt that he was finally able to surmount his own fears and insecurities.

_I…no, wait…We earned this_, he thought and turned to Maka, who was beaming with pride.

_This is it_, he thought, and gulped down the soul with more enthusiasm then he had thought he would have.

It was bitter, and like Arachne had been herself, it seemed to crawl through his system, and he could almost feel the webbing go down with it. And there it was, the twinge of insanity.

And then the power, and Soul realized that it wasn't the witch that was the source of the insanity or chaos, but rather the raw power itself. He felt in tune with everyone there, not just Maka, but Shinigami, Spirit. It was maddening in many ways.

But it was Maka who brought him back, her soul was the loudest, and it was her care, and her pride that made it through the din of power. And he realized that Spirit had been right. It was never really about the witch, nor when you ate the witch's soul, or what powers the Death Scythe had over that of the weapon, but rather about yourself and your own strength.

When the rumblings of power faded and everyone marveled at his weapon form, all he could think was…

_I am ready, I am strong, and I will overcome all things._

With Maka, his friends, and everyone he knew, and with his own confidence. Soul would have the power to fly.

And nothing, not even his own measures of insanity, would stop him.


End file.
